A Whale of A Life

It's really been a while since I've written a story, and this is my first crack at Third Person-Omniscient writing in a long time. All this story is really about is how two people, no matter how close they seem, are affected differently by things that happened to them. What those things are... well, you'll find out (or make them up yourselves) sooner or later.

"I feel like a whale," she blurted out.

Lying beside her, Iden only smiled. He was used to Bliss blurting out stuff that never seemed to make sense to him. Well, it didn't make sense until she explained them. And she always did.

"Do you know how whales find each other?" Bliss asked him.

"Like penguins," Iden said simply. Bliss sat up and looked at him lying on the grass, trying to figure out if he was serious or not - as if that ever really helped. She often felt like she never knew what he was thinking. Iden could be miles away in his head, and she'd never know. He would still have that serene look on his face, no matter how much everything beneath the surface is trying to come out and break him down. He's been like that for as long as Bliss can remember. It didn't scare her before. But, these days, all she can do is think about him and worry about him.

Despite of all the nights she spent fearing he would just suddenly vanish the next day, Bliss just said, "Yes, like penguins."

Iden nodded and waited for her to continue.

"They have this whale song that they sing out as a call to the other whales," she said. "That's how they find their mates. I used to find that sort of romantic. But, I read about this whale whose whale song was different from the others. Hers was at a different frequency - a frequency that the other whales can't recognize and respond to. Scientists have been trying to figure out what's wrong with her and they track her all over the world in the different oceans. In the meantime, she has no clue and she's just out there swimming alone and singing her whale song, wondering why she can't find a whale to be with. Just alone and lost."

Bliss sighed. "I feel like that whale. I feel just like her, sometimes."

"Well, congratulations," Iden said as he sat up too.

"What? Did you just congratulate me?"

"Yes, because the feeling you have is called being human."

Bliss rolled her eyes at him, "Iden - "

"No, I'm serious," he said, then he put his arm around her. "Because we're so irrevocably different from one another, no one can ever really understand what other people are saying no matter how much they try to convince themselves otherwise."

"But, you're wrong," she said.He shook his head. "We are all just different. Sometimes, it's a good thing. No two whale songs are the same. We're all at different frequencies - that means no two people can ever really get too close to each other and that prevents them from hurting each other. It's nature."

Is this supposed to comfort me? Despite his arm being around her, Bliss felt completely cold. Colder than she was a while ago, that's for sure. Nothing Iden just said seemed to make her feel better. Maybe, despite his intentions, it wasn't supposed to.

"Well, it's a good thing nature didn't have us evolve into whales," she said to him. "Good thing we're humans."

"Why is that a good thing?" he asked.

"We know better," she replied. "We know there are other ways to find one another, and we make do with that. We can survive with that. Maybe you're right and a person can never really understand how another person sees the world, feels the world, hears the world, and thinks about the world. But, whale songs aside, I don't think that would matter too much once two people realize that they're with the person they really want to be with. It wouldn't pull them apart. Because those two people would know better. I mean, they should know better."

"Two people like us," Iden said quietly.

Bliss smiled. "Maybe, if we work really, really, really hard."

"Hey," he said. "I don't think we have to work that hard."

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "For example, you couldn't even let me be a whale for two seconds."

Iden took his arm off her shoulders and held her hand instead. Bliss liked how warm his hand was it was against hers.

"But if I did that, I'd be disregarding my whole reason for living," Iden quipped, smirking at her.

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